Clarets target Lansbury set to stay at Forest

Nottingham Forest's Henry Lansbury under pressure from Rotherham United's Richie Smallwood
Rotherham United v Nottingham Forest Sky Bet Championship clash held at The New York Stadium on the 13/12/2014
Pic by Mark Clayton
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No Free Use permitted — Nottingham Forest's Henry Lansbury under pressure from Rotherham United's Richie Smallwood Rotherham United v Nottingham Forest Sky Bet Championship clash held at The New York Stadium on the 13/12/2014 Pic by Mark Clayton Football League Images are covered by DataCo Licence agreements For editorial use only No Free Use permitted

Forest issued a statement late on Wednesday claiming he was staying at the City Ground, after chairman Fawaz Al Hasawi posted a picture on his twitter page of him and Lansbury, stating “Henri is staying with us COYR#nffc”.

And the Forest statement read: “Nottingham Forest have confirmed the situation regarding Henri Lansbury’s future at the club.

“The 24-year-old has declared his intention to stay at Forest following a conversation with owner and chairman Fawaz Al Hasawi.

“The club welcome Lansbury’s decision and will now move forward with him in their plans.”

Lansbury, who signed a new contract at Forest after previous Burnley interest, is now poised to commit to another new deal.

Burnley have, a number of times, thought they were on the verge of landing the former Arsenal man, and last Monday, a senior Forest executive informed Nottingham media outlets that a bid, worth £3m with £1m in add ons, had been agreed.

Fawaz later denied that on twitter, but boss Dougie Freedman admitted at the weekend that he was willing to sanction the move if Clarets striker Lukas Jutkiewicz was part of the deal.

He said: “The latest is that our football club has asked about one of their players, to see if they can be put into the deal. If that interests Burnley, then they will get back to us. The ball is back in their court. I want Henri to stay.

“I have asked for one of their players to sweeten the deal. Then we will consider it. I am only going to do what is right for this football club.

“But the bottom line is that we do not want to lose Henri Lansbury and I have got to be comfortable that we are doing what is right for the club. If we are going to do any deal, it will be on our terms.”